News

30, August 2023

Gabon: Disgraced Ali Bongo abandons French language calls on people to ‘make noise’ in English ⁰

Gabon’s ex- president called on his citizens to “make noise” after a coup attempt in the Central African country, saying he was speaking from detention in his residence.

Ali Bongo Ondimba appeared in a video sat in a chair with a book shelf behind him. It was his first public appearance since soldiers took to state TV.

The disgraced and frustrated Bongo, who championed French interest in Africa spoke but in English and begged for help.

30, August 2023

Gabon president under house arrest, military officers say ⁰

Gabonese President Ali Bongo is under house arrest and one of his sons has been arrested for “treason”, military officers said Wednesday, hours after announcing they had overthrown the government.

“President Ali Bongo is under house arrest, surrounded by his family and doctors,” they said in a statement read out on state TV.

The statement added that other people in the government have been arrested on various charges.

Source: France 24

29, August 2023

UN says at least 183 killed in clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara ⁰

At least 183 people have been killed since July in clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the United Nations said Tuesday as it appealed for the killings, violence and rights abuses to end.

Tension in the northern region ratcheted up this year after the end of a devastating war in the neighbouring region of Tigray that also drew in fighters from Amhara.

“We are very concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in some regions of Ethiopia,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva.

“In Amhara region, following a flare-up in clashes between the Ethiopian military and the regional Fano militia, and the declaration of a state of emergency on August 4, the situation worsened considerably.

“At least 183 people have been killed in clashes since July, according to information gathered by the UN Human Rights Office.”

Tension in the northern region ratcheted up this year after the end of a devastating war in neighbouring Tigray that also drew in fighters from Amhara.

In April the federal government announced it was dismantling regional forces across the country.

The move triggered protests by Amhara nationalists who said it would weaken their region.

Clashes erupted in early July between the national army and local fighters known as Fano, prompting the authorities in Addis Ababa on August 4 to declare a six-month state of emergency.

The status gives the authorities broad powers to arrest suspects without a court order, impose curfews and ban public gatherings, Hurtado said.

“We have received reports that more than 1,000 people have been arrested across Ethiopia under this law. Many of those detained were reported to be young people of Amhara ethnic origin suspected of being Fano supporters,” she said.

“Since early August, mass house-to-house searches have reportedly been taking place.

“We call on the authorities to stop mass arrests, ensure that any deprivation of liberty is judicially reviewed, and release those arbitrarily detained.”

She added: “We call on all actors to stop killings, other violations and abuses.”

Source: AFP

29, August 2023

Bamenda: Muslim scholar Abdulkarim detained without trial for one year ⁰

Amnesty International has called on the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé to release Muslim scholar, Abdulkarim Ali, who has been detained without trial since August 11, 2023.

Marking the first year in detention for Abdulkarin Ali, who has reportedly been accused of inciting subversion of state power and having strong ties with the leaderships of the Southern Cameroons restoration groups, Karim said he was abducted and not arrested by Francophone army soldiers in Bamenda.

Cameroon Concord News understands Yaoundé reproached him for managing the human rights situation of the war in Southern Cameroons.

Karim has also been the defender of women’s rights ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons and was quoted recently as saying that many women are wailing and suffering as the war in Anglophone regions continues.

In December 2022, Amnesty International called for his release, observing that Mr. Karim was arrested for expressing his views.

“He was arrested only for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” Fabien Offner, Amnesty International’s researcher for West and Central Africa, said.

Anglophone lawyers who successively offered to defend him were previously rejected by the Francophone authorities in Bamenda. The National gendarmerie is also putting pressure on Mr. Karim’s family members particularly his mother to dissuade them from assisting him in detention.

By Fon Lawrence

28, August 2023

Retired but not tired: Pro Biya Supreme Court judge found dead in car ⁰

Retired Justice Bisseck Dagobert has been found dead in his car in Yaoundé the nation’s capital.

His lifeless body was discovered on Saturday August 26, 2023 in the Nkolbison neighborhood.

Early reports suggested that the pro President Biya judge was seen in a hotel at about 2pm and was visited by a young lady. The lady reportedly left the hotel by 7:30pm and the lifeless body of the Magistrate was later discovered at about 9:45pm.

Bisseck Dagobert died aged 74. He was serving the corrupt regime as a judge at the Chamber of Accounts at the Supreme Court and also moonlighted as president of the judicial Chamber.

Reported by Cameroon News Agency with additional editing from Ewang Miriam Metchane

26, August 2023

Black Suffering: Americans mark 60th anniversary of ‘March on Washington’ with mass rally ⁰

Americans have commemorated the 60th anniversary of the “March on Washington,” a pivotal event held in the US capital in the 1960s US civil rights movement, amid spreading social injustice in an increasingly polarized US society.

Tens of thousands of Americans, who gathered on Saturday in Washington, DC, to show their devotion to the ideas of late American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., called for an end to White supremacy and racial discrimination in the United States.

Rights activists from all over the US and from all walks of society gathered at the iconic Lincoln Memorial to promote racial equality in US society and beyond.

Speakers at the rally, who see Black America’s rights are on the line, addressed discriminatory issues in US society including Supreme Court decisions on Affirmative Action to states who are attempting to rewrite the history.

“No Justice, No Peace,” the demonstrators chanted, while speakers reminded that “Black lives matter”, condemning gun violence against Black individuals.

They stressed that racism is becoming more prevalent in American society and highlighted the need for more efforts to eliminate racial discrimination.

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I have a dream” speech which would become one of the most influential speeches in world modern history.”

That march brought more than 250,000 people to the US capital to push for an end to continuous discrimination against colored people in the US.

In his memorable speech, King urged the righteous people from all walks of US society to imagine a day when “all of God’s children, Black men and white men, [are] … ‘Free at last! Free at last!”

The “March on Washington” King’s enlightening speech helped change the segregated system prevalent in US society in the 60s and bring an end to Jim Crow laws, pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and open the modern civil rights era which was slowly making progress before former US President Donald Trump launched his regressive rightist campaign, driving a wedge in US society.

Source: Presstv

26, August 2023

France: Sarkozy to face trial for receiving funds from Libya’s Gaddafi ⁰

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will face a trial in 2025 on charges of corruption and receiving illegal funding from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his successful 2007 presidential campaign, according to France’s financial prosecutors.

An initial hearing is set for March 7, 2024, the prosecutor’s office said, with the trial itself scheduled to take place between Jan.6, 2025 and April 10, 2025.

The 68-year-old is also fighting various other charges, including “concealment of embezzlement of public funds, passive corruption, and illegal campaign financing, the prosecutor’s office said.

The investigation was sparked by revelations from the investigative website Mediapart which published a document purporting to show that Gaddafi agreed to give Sarkozy up to 50 million euros ($54 million at current rates).

Sarkozy could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the case, while he has repeatedly denied the accusations. “There’s not even the smallest inkling of proof,” he said in an interview in 2018.

In addition to Sarkozy, there are 12 others facing the trial among them heavyweights such as Sarkozy’s former right-hand man Claude Gueant, his then head of campaign financing Eric Woerth and former interior minister Brice Hortefeux.

Sarkozy has already been convicted twice for corruption and influence-peddling in separate cases involving attempts to influence a judge and campaign financing.

He lost an appeal in May against a 2021 conviction for corruption and influence peddling. His legal team promised to challenge that at France’s highest court.

Sarkozy championed a NATO-led military intervention in Libya, taking advantage of an uprising against Gaddafi in 2011, which plunged the African country into chaos and infighting continuing to this day.

Before Sarkozy, the only former French leader to be sentenced at trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal relating to his time as Paris mayor.

Source: Presstv

23, August 2023

Unity among Amba groups will ensure success in Ground Zero ⁰

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says that only unity among all Southern Cameroons restoration groups can guarantee victory against La Republique du Cameroun.

Speaking during a war cabinet meeting on the issue of school resumption in Southern Cameroons on Tuesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima emphasized that unity among all Ambazonia frontline groups and leaders is essential to foster the struggle.

“Getting to Buea can only be possible through collaboration and unity among all stakeholders in the Southern Cameroons conflict,” Yerima said.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader also stressed that the Ambazonia diaspora should go back to its original role of providing resources to the fighters and resistance groups in Ground Zero.

Referring to efforts made at reaching a general consensus on the leadership issue, Vice President Dabney Yerima cited progress in the level of cooperation, communication, and interaction between the Interim Government and many other Southern Cameroons restoration groups.

By Chi Prudence Asong

23, August 2023

Number of American kids killed by guns hit record high in 2021 ⁰

Gun deaths related to children in the United States have reached a new high, a recent study revealed on Monday, signaling the surging gun violence across the country.

The report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that more children had died from gun-related injuries in 2021, in contrast to previous years.

By using the stats provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mortality database, the study found that gun deaths of American children rose from 3,390 in 2019 to 4,368 in 2020 and to 4,752 in 2021, the latest year for which data was available.

According to the study published in the AAP’s journal, gun violence has been the number one cause of death for children in the United States since 2020.

Noticeably, among Black kids guns were mostly used for homicide while the majority of White children used them for suicide.

Source: Presstv

22, August 2023

Yaoundé: Disgraced Spy Chief Eko Eko interrogated on Martinez Zogo Killing ⁰

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who has been in pre-trial detention since 4 March 2023 following the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo was recently interrogated by a judge at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal hinted that during the August 21 auditioning, Eko Eko spoke at length to Lieutenant Colonel Aime Florent Sikati II about his own, long acquaintance with corrupt business tycoon Amougou Belinga but much of what he talked about was speculative.

Our Yaoundé city reporter observed that Eko Eko didn’t look like the hero who masterminded the NERA 10 operation against the Southern Cameroons leadership. “He has grown slim and looks like a pensioner” Rita Akana noted.

Justice Sikati II also spoke to colleagues, bodyguards, current and retired security agents, and even relatives of Léopold Maxime Eko Eko all of whom were arrested for interrogations en masse.

We understand that some of the perpetrators of the Martinez Zogo assassination have been identified and arrested in Yaoundé. But information about this assassination is still being kept like a nuclear secret.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai